What kind of website do I need?
The answer is more complex and confusing than many clients realize.  To assist you in answering this question the following questions and answers will get you started. By the time you read through this page you will be sort out most of the issues in web development you need to know in order to save you both time and money.

What is a website?
Simply put, it is a collection of web pages. For a more technical answer check out Wikipedia.

What is a web page?
A web page is a text document that contains html and CSS code. When a browser (i.e. Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer) reads the text document and interprets the formating code (HTML, CSS etc) then displays the page and all its elements (text, pictures, video, audio, etc.) as designed.

Static vs Dynamic websites?
A static website is prebuilt collection of web pages that is uploaded on some local or remote webserver.  Static websites are generally made with HTML editors which organize the various pages into a single folder with all the links defined to help a web browser display and navigate to the various pages.  This kind of development is a slow and detailed process. Although this is the most common form of website construction it has its limitations.  As your site grows the labor and difficulty to maintain the website becomes increasingly unmanageable. Also, the time it takes to make changes gets longer and longer.  Static web sites are ideal for websites that are small and rarely change.  The kind of web site that is best described as “brochure.”

The second kind of website is known as a dynamic website. It far more complex, and requires more expertise to keep running. However, it offers solutions to many problems. For instance the skills and training needed to create and edit web pages is minimal.  Any administrative assistant could do add and edit content. The secret is that the content (text, images, etc) and the design code is seperated and stored in a database. So any content will get it’s online look and structure from a carefully defined template.

A good dynamic website comes in many forms.  Ebay, the Wall Street Journal, FaceBook are all database driven sites with lots of management controls.  All these sites create their pages when you request them through a browser.  Those pages can be edited or modified constantly until they are saved.  Then the next web visitor gets the new version of the page without having to shut down the website to upload a new version.
In general these sites can easily cost $50,000 to $500,000 just for a license. This often limits the use these kinds of web development tools to only large companies that can afford to pay for the skilled programmers and the software licenses for these products.

Why we use Open Source?
When possible we use what is known as “open source” software.  This is a kind of software that does not have any license fees associated with the use.  We use a highly regarded open source dynamic web content management system known as Plone. As a result we can often build sites for smaller organizations and businesses that want their websites to be effective communication portals that can deliver content 24/7.

The next thing you need to know is that there are many kinds of web sites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website#Types_of_websites


I have a lot of content to put on my website (more than 25 pages).
I need to modify or add content at least weekly.
I need the ability to edit my website with a browser.
I need more than one person adding content to my site.
I need more security for my site.